BENGALURU: Volunteers in Whitefield have offered a novel kind of support for medical staff in five government hospitals spread across the city – vending machines to ensure round-the-clock free supply of tea and coffee for doctors, nurses and others. What is heartwarming is they also ensured the machines were given three months worth of supplies to prepare the drinks.
Victoria Hospital, Bowring Hospital, Jayadeva Hospital and Vani Vilas Hospital have been given one dispenser each while St Johns Hospital has been given two machines.
Volunteers at Prestige Ozone apartment, Prestige Shanti Niketan and Chaitanya Samarpana and their friends were involved in contributing and mobilising funds required for this initiative. Coffee giants, Nestle and Georgia, too offered to sponsor it in two hospitals.
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Dr K Shashi Karthikeyan, a Whitefield resident involved in these efforts, said, “The feedback has been extremely good and the medical staff are extremely thankful to us. We initially thought of providing concentrators or other COVID related medical equipment to public health centres but the question of whether they would have the necessary infrastructure and staff to operate them arose. Interactions with healthcare workers revealed that they wanted this simple, basic necessity to refresh themselves as they could not step out of their wards due to COVID restrictions.”
The cost of each machine with 90 days of supplies works out to Rs 1.25 lakh.
Another volunteer (requesting anonymity) said, “Four more machines are in the pipeline and will be installed at the KG General Hospital at Kolar and Mysore Medical College.”
“We all experience the pain and devastation caused by COVID. Our heart goes out to the frontline workers who have been working non-stop for more than a year, saving innumerable lives,” she added.
The volunteers are looking for financial support to increase the number of hospitals they can cover in future. Those interested can reach them at www.e-sevahub.com